Olive (Zaitoon)

1. Land Preparation Pits 2 x 2 x 2 ft, spacing 20 x 20 ft for oil orchards. Olive is being planted across Kurram, Waziristan and Bajaur precisely because it produces on stony, shallow, rainfed hill land where nothing else pays.

Both Sowing Feb–Mar Harvest Jul–Aug 40–80 maund per acre

Land Preparation

Pits 2 x 2 x 2 ft, spacing 20 x 20 ft for oil orchards. Olive is being planted across Kurram, Waziristan and Bajaur precisely because it produces on stony, shallow, rainfed hill land where nothing else pays. It will not tolerate waterlogging for even a few days.

Sowing Time & Method

Plant two-year-old nursery plants in February–March or September–October. PLANT AT LEAST TWO VARIETIES together — most olive varieties will not set fruit with their own pollen, and a single-variety block is the commonest reason a healthy-looking orchard carries no fruit. Arbequina, Coratina, Gemlik, Leccino and Frantoio are the varieties planted in KP.

Seed Rate & Treatment

Buy certified plants from a registered nursery and keep the variety label — at delivery time the mill needs to know whether you are growing an oil or a table variety, and they are handled completely differently.

Fertilizer

Young tree: 10 kg farmyard manure and 250 g urea per year, rising with age. Bearing tree: 20–25 kg manure, 1 kg urea, 500 g DAP and 500 g SOP. Olive needs far less feeding than other fruit and over-fertilising gives shoot growth instead of fruit.

Irrigation

Water every 15–20 days for the first three years until established; after that a mature olive survives on rainfall in most of KP. Where you can irrigate, water at flowering and during fruit set — those two moments decide the crop.

Weed Control

Weed Damage Control Product
Bermuda Grass (Khabbal) Mats the basin of young trees and drinks the little rain that rainfed land holds. Hand hoe a clean basin around every young tree and keep it bare
Puncture Vine (Bhakra) Mats over the basin after summer rain and takes the stored moisture while the fruit is filling. Hoe the basin after the rain, before the thorny seed sets
Bathu (Lambsquarters) Its cold-season flush in the basin uses the stored moisture the tree needs for spring flowering. Hoe the basin while the plants are small, before they seed
Field Bindweed (Lehli) Climbs the young sapling and smothers the new shoots that should be forming its frame. Unwind the vine and dig its roots out by hand
Johnson Grass (Baru) Its rhizomes run through the inter-rows into the basin and steal water on rainfed slopes. Scythe the inter-rows on slope; do not plough them out

Keep a clean basin for the first years. On sloping hill land leave the grass between rows and cut it rather than ploughing it out — bare slope soil washes away in the first storm.

Insect Pests

Olive fruit fly is the main pest and it lays into the ripening fruit; trap from September and the oil quality is saved. Olive psyllid makes white cottony masses on new shoots in spring. Black scale weakens the whole tree and brings sooty mould.

Diseases

Peacock spot shows as dark rings on leaves in a wet spring and causes heavy leaf fall. Olive knot makes rough woody galls on twigs after hail or frost injury — cut out and burn, and never prune in wet weather because that is how it spreads. Verticillium wilt kills whole branches and lives in the soil, so never plant olive where cotton, tomato or brinjal have been.

Crop Care

Train to an open vase with 3–4 main branches. Olive fruits on last year's wood, so prune lightly every year after harvest rather than heavily once every few years. Expect the first real crop in year 4–5.

Harvesting

For oil, pick when the fruit is turning from green to purple — that is peak oil with best quality, and waiting for fully black fruit gives more oil of a worse grade. Get the fruit to the mill within 24–48 hours; olives left in heaps ferment and the whole batch drops to lamp grade.